Thomas Jefferson based his hope for the new American Republic on “the common sense and good judgment of the American people.” This faith had its roots in the ancient republican principles of civic duty and citizen participation. From ancient Athens forward, both duty and participation were considered necessary to guarantee that the republic, every republic, resisted corruption by narrow interests and was committed to justice and fairness. As modern democracy evolved, taxes were required to provide security and to underwrite social compacts, the price that is paid for a civilized society. Jefferson’s hope, and the justice and fairness necessary to a civilized society, have been under direct assault for at least three decades.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the U.S. corporate tax code. As clearly and persuasively documented in the documentary We’re Not Broke, many if not most Fortune 500 corporations are paying effective tax rates in the low single digits, or even fractions of a percent. Some of the nation’s largest corporations pay no taxes at all. The key word here is “effective”, for corporations very rarely pay the official or statutory tax rate.

Corporate tax avoidance, usually involving offshore tax havens, saves corporate owners hundreds of billions of dollars, even as those same owners complain about high tax rates. Corporate shareholders benefit greatly, but at the expense of American society. In their defense, major corporate spokespersons assert that all this complicated tax avoidance is legal. By and large that is true. But as one commentator in We’re Not Broke says, what is legal is not always what is right. As that same commentator noted, slavery and denial of voting rights for women were both once legal.

Since almost all everyday Americans pay a fair share of taxes for the security and social cohesion they need, why shouldn’t America’s major corporations also pay a fair share for the security, infrastructure, trained workforce, and community cohesion they need and enjoy?

There is much hypocrisy here. Today’s massive deficits have been produced by a housing bubble, deregulated financial schemes, two wars, and also tax cuts. These deficits get worse when America’s citizens, particularly its corporate citizens, do not pay their fair share for the benefits of American citizenship they enjoy. When corporations do not pay their share, everyday Americans have to make up the difference or we have massive deficits.

This seems even more obviously the case since the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United that corporations are “persons” for purposes of free speech in the form of campaign contributions. Given that extraordinary and unprecedented status, it is even more obvious that these corporate “persons” should contribute a fair share of their profits for the status they enjoy. Yet those massive campaign contributions have guaranteed protection for corporate tax avoidance schemes. Billions of dollars are donated to key members of Congress who write the tax laws and who return the favor by perpetuating corporate tax loopholes. And the notorious “revolving door” in Washington counts among its beneficiaries senior administrators, including former directors of the Internal Revenue Service, who become highly paid advisors to major corporations on how to avoid fair tax treatment.

Yet these same political figures, in the Executive and Legislative Branches, repeat the mantra that we cannot raise taxes. Temporary tax cuts scheduled to expire do not represent a tax increase when they do expire. Taxes merely return to their previous statutory levels before the “temporary” tax reductions. Likewise, closing favorable corporate tax loopholes does not represent a tax increase. Those in favor of tax fairness merely insist that corporations pay what the law would require if the tax avoidance schemes were not in place.

While the Tea Party movement has arisen to protest the size of government, “no cut” rallies have also arisen (on a much smaller scale) and joined the Occupy Wall Street movement. We’re Not Broke lays out the facts to support these protesters’ intuition that majority-favored public assistance programs for the poor and middle class are absolutely affordable if major corporations and wealthy individuals paid a fair share of taxes.

Despite the rhetoric of the ideological media, our nation is not broke. Our ability to meet our public needs and maintain the standards of a civilized society is simply being compromised by tax manipulation at the behest of corporate power. We have repeatedly experimented with supply side theory, based on the premise that tax cuts produce growth and jobs. At no point has that theory proved true. These experiments are a smokescreen for those who do not like our government and do not want to pay its legitimate expenses, and continue to perpetuate a myth.

Meanwhile, our hypocritical tax system contributes mightily to citizen distrust of government. Much of the current unhappiness with government is not that it is too big but that it is too unfair. Everyday Americans know that the wealthy and powerful game the system, and its core component involved in raising revenues, to their extreme advantage. The widespread sense of injustice is very near the heart of what Jefferson feared for the Republic. Healthy skepticism about political power is only a short step away from the unhealthy cynicism that erodes public confidence in representative democracy. The bailout of giant financial institutions, some of which are now reporting record profits and low effective tax rates, may have been necessary to preserve our financial structures, but they contributed substantially toward this mounting and dangerous cynicism.

As We’re Not Broke persuasively demonstrates, we are a wealthy nation, capable of defending our shores, supporting a social compact, and paying our way. But these fundamental goals can only be met if all citizens, including the leaders of wealthy corporations, demonstrate loyalty to more than profits. They must also demonstrate loyalty to their country by paying a fair and just share toward its collective strength.